Welcome to Riften
by LadyLuck678
Summary: Skyrim one-shot featuring my Bosmer Dragonborn with my favorite follower, Mjoll the Lioness! There is a little romantic tension if you squint and face magnetic north... The story oddly features Maul as the main antagonist. I couldn't find his name in the Characters section so... Also a warning to Maven Black-Briar fans; she's only mentioned in the story. T rating for language.


It was so hot you could fry an egg on the cobblestones. Mjoll grimaced as she smelled something unpleasant coming from one of Riften's many canals. The stench only magnified by the incessant heat of what was probably one of the most brutal summers she had ever had in Skyrim.

"So he's already out of the jail?" The Nord's expression softened when she glanced at her companion Aerin. They had taken refuge from the late afternoon sun under an overhang near Riften's front gate. He was looking up at her in earnest from his perch on an old barrel.

"Yes, that little piss-ant got out even before I got up this morning. The bailiff said it was a mix up with another prisoner..." She sighed as she absentmindedly swatted at an insect biting her neck.

"That scoundrel! You'll catch him again Mjoll, I know you will."

Mjoll sighed again, that was just the problem with this place. She kept catching thieves, specifically from the thieves guild, breaking the law. She'd catch them and somehow (almost magically) they'd get released. The latest example happening just last night.

She'd exited the Bee and Barb after a couple rounds of mead and literally slammed right into a burglar. Stunned and sprawled on the ground, his ill-gotten goods scattered on the stone pathway to Oblivion and back.

Mjoll knew who he was immediately; an Imperial who called himself Rune. He got up to run but the Nord vigilante was quicker, she cuffed him on the side of the head knocking him out cold. The Riften guard and the owner of the Pawned Prawn running up soon after the fact.

The guards unceremoniously scooped him up and dragged him off, while Mjoll helped a grateful Bersi Honey-Hand pick up his belongings. All that fuss and the little shit still managed to escape the law. If she wasn't jaded before, she sure was now - Stendarr help her...

"It'll be alright Mjoll, something has to give right?" Aerin said, he was trying to shine some light on the grim state of affairs that was Riften and the Thieves Guild. Mjoll shook her head and gave a passing glance at the heavy wooden gates opening, the stained wood scraping against the stone on the ground.

"For every step I take forward I get pushed back two. I swear the only way this place will get cleaned up is if I jump into the Ratways myself and -"

"Whoa! I've never seen a warrior like that before! Have you Mjoll!?" The Nord woman snapped her head in the direction that Aerin was gawking.

A figure clad in what looked like segmented steel armor wrapped in hardened earthy brown leather. Her face mostly covered by a finely crafted black and brown leather hood. A deadly looking bow with a quiver of arrows slung loosely around a well worn black cloak. A short sword attached to the back of her belt with an ornate handle made from what looked like elk horn.

Well this was unusual, in so much that Mjoll thought to never see a warrior like this so far from Valenwood. The Nord warrior tutted, and then replied quietly, "It's a Bosmeri ranger."

"Bosmeri? Like, from Valenwood? Like, from the south?" Aerin's gaze followed the figure as she casually strode down the worn cobblestone street.

"Aerin, honestly! Where else would there be a Valenwood." The younger Nord only gave a half smile and a sheepish look. "Uh-oh, trouble Mjoll..."

The Bosmer woman had (unfortunately) crossed into the path of a particularly nasty thug. "Hey you, I don't know you. You in Riften looking for trouble?"

"Calm down son, I'm only passing through." The woman said in a particularly soothing contralto voice.

"Piss off lady, I ain't your son and I don't believe you're only passing through. Not too many rangers in Skyrim if you didn't notice!" The thug stood to his full height and began to square off against the wood elf.

Mjoll had seen enough, "Stop right there Maul!"

She walked across the street next to the Bosmer and stared Maul straight in the eye. "Does Maven Black-Briar have you attacking everyone that enters the city now?" She nodded in the direction of a guard on patrol. "You think the guard over there would like to know how aggressive you're being with visitors?"

The armored thug swore under his breath as the guard walked ever closer. "You got off easy this time elf, you get this one for free." He then sneered at Mjoll, "Watch it _Lioness,_ your days are numbered. It's only a matter of time before Maven gets too fed up with your antics."

Mjoll stared daggers at Maul as he promptly skulked off into a dark back alley. She was startled out of her stare however when the wood elf clapped her on her iron clad shoulder. "Well! So much for keeping a low profile. I suppose I should have changed out of my armor for that though."

The elf then craned her neck around the street to see if she attracted any more attention than she already had. "Sorry to impose, but is there a place to get out of this heat, and possibly get a drink? I'll buy, it's only fair after your timely rescue."

"Uh the Bee and Barb is just over the canal, you can get some drinks there, and a room too." Aerin had stayed across the street during Mjoll's little posturing match with Maul. But now he joined the pair, young enthusiasm apparent in his eyes.

Mjoll looked down at the Bosmer ranger, "Well friend, what's your name?"

Emerald green eyes peered from the shadow of her hood, they almost had a luminescence about them, Mjoll thought they were beautiful. "Dressandra. Dressandra Forest-Strider.", she replied and gave the Nord warrior a grin.

Mjoll the Lioness could only grin back. She had a feeling that there was going to be a sudden shift in Riften, and it was going to be for the better.

"Welcome to Riften Dressandra, let me show you around."


End file.
